While the movie "Avengers: End Game" recently kicked off the summer blockbuster season, one notable Albany theater will not be screening the newest flicks any time soon.

For over a year, the upstart theater company looking to occupy the shuttered Madison Theater and the Colonie-based realty group brokering the deal have repeatedly pushed back the opening date for the iconic theater with little explanation.

The Madison theater was purchased for $525,000 in April 2018 by Colonie-based Trinity Realty Group from Tierra Farm, the Columbia County fruit-and-nut wholesaler that had owned the Madison and its adjoining coffee shop since 2013.

Cosmic Cinemas, founded by Terrell Braly, a former CEO of Alamo Drafthouse, plans to occupy the Madison and offer food and alcoholic beverages to moviegoers at their seats. The company opened a location at Fairview Plaza in Hudson late last year after planning to open it five months earlier.

Kevin Parisi, a TRG co-founder and real estate broker, negotiated the deal to lease the Madison and the Fairview Plaza theaters to Cosmic, and is also leasing the coffee shop space to Tierra.

But the deal was negotiated in conjunction with Tierra under the agreement the two businesses would open at or near the same time and symbiotically boost each other's performance.

Tierra opened Skyline coffee shop in early March after a minor dispute with the City of Albany delayed its opening date.

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"Prior to our agreement and execution of this lease Tierra Farm and its management were advised that a new movie theater, operating under the trade name Cosmic Cinemas, would be opening adjacent to our leased space and would be opening by the end of 2018," read a May 8 letter Tierra CEO Todd Kletter sent to Parisi.

"As I have come to understand the theater is still under renovation and there is not a definitive date as to when Cosmic will be operational," the letter read.

Kletter's letter said the coffee shop's sales and foot traffic are "significantly less than anticipated and can be directly attributed to the non-operational theater and the unkempt nature of the entire property."

Parisi has not responded to multiple requests for comment dating back to last September, when the Times Union began inquiring into the theater's prolonged renovation. Kletter said he has been in contact with Parisi, but has been "disappointed in his general response."

Pine Hills residents have for months questioned when the project would be complete, and Albany Common Council member Owusu Anane said he's also reached out to developers with no luck in getting a response.

"Everyone is waiting and wondering," Anane said. "So many neighbors have stopped me on the street, called and emailed me about the timing. I am ready and willing to assist to ensure it's reopening, and I tried to get an update from the new owners but I haven't heard back from them.

"The Madison Theater means so much to the fabric of our neighborhood and we are all eager to see it open again," he said.

Virginia Hammer, president of the Pine Hills Neighborhood Association, said a reopened Madison would "attract people from all over the area" to the neighborhood.

"The way they had described it, it sounded like a much different type of model than a regular theater, something that would appeal to lot of different kinds of people...that's the part that's really exciting," Hammer said.

But she said that construction on the building appears to come in "fits and starts," and she hasn't seen much progress made lately.

"We walk past there a lot, and we haven't seen really any activity," Hammer said.

Parisi has been interviewed by the Albany Business Review multiple times since last September, when he first said the theater's opening would be "just a little bit delayed."

He later said in a November Business Review story that he was hopeful the theater would re-open in early December.

Braly, Cosmic's CEO, told the Times Union in March of last year that he was shooting for a summer 2018 opening after a renovation and upgrades including digital projectors and rocker seats.

But while Cosmic Cinemas currently holds a liquor license for its Hudson movie theater, it still holds no such license at the Madison Theater location, according to the New York State Liquor Authority— a sign further delays are likely.

"There are times that we are trying to understand and appreciate what's going on with the theater," Kletter said. "We signed a lease predicated on the fact that there would be an operating entity there."